Historical Thinking Skills and Evaluation Strategies in Social Sciences

Historical thinking is a framework that allows students to explore the nature of history and historical events at a deeper level. Students actively investigate their past, using various intellectual operations, and through an examination of source documents, and a process representation, rigorous reasoning, and interpretation.

Opportunities for formative and self-assessment abound. The Historical Thinking concepts and specific guideposts can help you note and then teach the more specific and deeper skills needed for final assessments. Here you will find notions, tools and strategies to help you teach critical thinking and more effectively use the evaluation frameworks and the "Intellectual Operations".

Note: Some of the actual Practice Evaluations produced by the RECITUS have been translated as well, and are available here below and on the History of Quebec & Canada page here.

Intellectual Operations Icons, Summary Pages, Organizers

Intellectual Operations Icons by LEARN

Also, available are various "Summary Pages" and Related Graphic Organizers

Below you will now find our icons, which were originally used for summary pages created by LEARN and LBPSB consultants, and which now include the latest versions specific to the History of Quebec and Canada program. Older IO documents for courses being changed or discontinued may also be available.

A note about these icons from Paul R @ LEARN! These icons have a story: They were quickly created when I was putting together various LESs and document packages, and when I was teaching the course myself online. The intention was to have identifiable iconography so that I could label activities easily and so students could readily see which operation they were performing. I created poster-sized versions to put on my wall as well. They quickly became very popular amongst teachers and students, and are now often used in the creation of materials by various boards and even on some exams! However, please note that they are not official documents, but are reflections on the official documents available on the MEES sites and on their training documents.

Summary documents of the frameworks and I.O.s for various subjects within the Social Sciences:

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER COLLECTIONS

Also available on the Secondary History main page here, this is our store-house for various graphic organizers we have produced for various purposes. They are gather them together for convenience, and loosely organize them around various Historical Thinking concepts and specifically their guideposts document, the Soc Sci Techniques and the Intellectual Operations.

Featured this fall: The Cause and Consequence Master Kit(from SWLSB & LBPSB consultants DH and JZ)

The I.O. Master Kit for the I.O. Causes and Consequences is a complex graphic organizer with moveable parts. It is a physical kit designed to be printed out and laminated. Students, working in small groups, can use it to physically ‘map out’ a historical event, in order to practice and perform various intellectual operations in the social sciences. Read more on Dan's blog post here Access the kit & related organizers here

I.O. Badges in Social Sciences (RECITUS)

Earning your Intellectual Operations Badges by RECITUS Below are a series of badges for the I.O.s in history and geography that you can "hand over" to students as they practice them and as they become proficient in using them in different situations. They were prepared by the RECITUS team; originals in French. Go to site Also note, the badge images used in the guides are also available here: Download

The included guides allow the teacher or pupil to illustrate concretely an abstract intellectual operation. However, they are not instruments of evaluation. Rather, they allow the student to [formatively] assess where he is in his appropriation of one or other of the intellectual operations. They are also tools to inspire and motivate students as they can be used in gaming strategies in class, a playful learning tool, and just one teaching medium among many others. It is up to teachers to define an appropriate distribution system. You could, for example, determine that the student must have at least 5 references to an intellectual operation to acquire the level of skill required for your course. Finally, you could use the images below, or a tool like Credly to distribute your mentions digitally.

Establish Facts The student must identify an actor, a group, an action, a measure, a role, a territory, an economic activity, a phenomenon. Télécharger le guide Visiter le site Download English version Go to siteRéclamer cette mention (compte credly nécessaire).

Establish connections between facts The student must associate demonstrations or descriptions with facts that are related to them. Le guide original: Télécharger Access current English version Go to siteRéclamer cette mention (compte credly nécessaire).

Establish Causal Connections The student must demonstrate the causal link between the specified elements.Le guide original TéléchargerAccess current English version Go to siteRéclamer cette mention(compte credly nécessaire).

Determine causes & consequences The student should indicate a fact, for example, the contexts, interests, objectives, influences, actions, which explains a historical reality. The student should indicate a fact that springs from a historical reality. Les guides originaux: Causes Télécharger Conséquences Télécharger Access current English versions: Causes Go to site Consequences Go to siteRéclamer cette mention (compte credly nécessaire).

Situate in TimeThe student must chronologically order facts taking into account time markers. It must situate a fact or set of facts on a timeline. It must classify facts according to whether they are earlier or later than a time marker.Télécharger le guide vister le site Download English version Go to siteRéclamer cette mention (compte credly nécessaire).

Determine changes & continuities The student must identify a fact that shows that a historical reality is being transformed or maintained. Access current English version: Changes and continuities Go to siteOriginal: Changements et continuités Visiter le siteRéclamer cette mention(compte credly nécessaire).

Intellection Operations: Main and Formative Sub-Skill Examples

Teaching Intellectual Operations and Historical Thinking

The I.O.s as they relate to real-life situations? Here's one fun way to introduce the I.O.s then to constantly refer to them throughout the year. View the LEARN How-to entitled Talk about your passion by using the Intellectual Operations! Go to page

Intellection Operations and formative supporting skills and notions

The Intellectual Operations are ways students "appropriately use knowledge" in the Social Sciences. But students may need to develop other supporting skills or notions too. "Too often in education, we head students who have insufficient formative skills straight for the summative assessment. It is the formative skills that lead up to the summative skills, the ones being assessed." (Big Skills for the Common Core by Hugelmeyer & Benjamin)

ESTABLISH FACTSExplore the following examples of skills and sub-skills that help students "identify relevant and accurate facts" and establish and understanding their significance:Main skills: Identify accurate facts Go to site Identify and explain relevant facts Go to siteRelated sub-skills to practice: Consider the question or problem Go to site Establish needs and clear goals Go to site Consider prior understanding Go to site Contextualize document Go to site Primary vs secondary documents Go to site

ESTABLISH CONNECTIONS BETWEEN FACTSExplore the following examples of skills and sub-skills that help students "associate forms of expression or descriptions with facts that are related to them:Main skills: Ability to INTERRELATE FACTS Go to site Ability to ILLUSTRATE A STATEMENT using facts. Go to site Related sub-skills to practice: Describe the “historical narrative” Gain and connect specific knowledge from documents

SITUATE IN TIME AND SPACEThe following are examples of skills involved when students "place facts on timelines; establish precedence or posteriority, situate territories in time, etc."Main skills in this I.O.: Place Facts in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER Go to site Place Facts on a TIMELINE Go to site Identify facts that PRECEDE or FOLLOW Go to site Situate TERRITORIES IN TIME Go to site Situate TERRITORY in space/time Go to site

Historical Thinking / How to get students thinking deeper? How can we turn a timeline activity into a historical thinking activity? One way is to consider historical significance. Example strategy: Arrange event cards in chronological order. From a larger set of events, students select and place on a timeline 10 events that are the most historicallysignificant, based on criteria such as "Revealing or Remarkable" (from The Big Six). With this criterion in mind students then categorize their selection based on remarkable or revealing, and arrange event cards in chronological order. Alternatively, students could use criteria based on relevance to a guiding question. Finally, students themselves could use their conclusions to determine their own time periods or to identify what they feel are important turning points, compare theirs to the program's choices, etc. (Tools like timelines here, here and here. Browse larger collection here. Timelines cards similar generate on Canadian Encyclopedia here, but created from collections like those on LEARN here!)

CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCESExplore the following examples of skills that help students identify facts that explain and/or result from phenomena: Main skill: Identify MULTIPLE CAUSES/CONSEQUENCES Go to sitePossible sub-skills: Delineate/characterize a TIME PERIOD Go to site Consider MOTIVATIONS Go to siteIdentify/explain CONDITIONS Go to site Determine consequence’s INFLUENCE Go to site Note consequence’s DURATION Go to site

ESTABLISH CAUSAL CONNECTIONSExplore the following examples of skills that help students establish logical connections between explanatory factors and consequences:Main skill: EXPLAIN THE CAUSAL CONNECTIONS Go to sitePossible sub-skills: Mapping MULTIPLE CAUSES Go to site Identify TYPES (Economic, political, etc.) Go to site Vocabulary for WAYS ... Go to site

CONTINUITY AND CHANGEExplore the following examples of skills that help students identify what remains unchanged over time, or that changes over time.Main skill: Identify UNCHANGED & indicate CHANGED Go to sitePossible sub-skills: Sequence the TARGETED EVENTS first Go to site PERIODIZE the events in question Go to site Discover/identify TURNING POINTS Go to site Describe the PROCESS of CHANGE Go to site INTERPRET changed and unchanged elements Go to site

LCEEQ WORKSHOP ON HISTORICAL THINKING

LCEEQ Presentation on Historical Thinking (Matt R and Paul R) Matt R. (WQSB) and I (Paul R from LEARN) presented on HIstorical Thinking concepts and strategies at LCEEQ this year. We focussed on information in the various sections on this page below, and provided opportunities for participants to "think historically".

Evaluation Materials (RECITUS, SWLSB)

SWLSB database of exam questions

Recently shared on the community by Daniel Hedges, consultant at SWLSB, is a large project whereby recycled and recently created MEES-style exam questions have been organized according to course time periods. The links below lead directly to the questions posted to the Secondary 3/4 Communauté Histoire du Québec et du Canada. (Go to site)

RECITUS tasks, evaluations & document collections in English

Occasionally we translate RECITUS document collections, tasks and most recently various evaluations. They are then stored on the Secondary 3/4 Communauté Histoire du Québec et du Canada. (Go to site) Direct links to these resources are below.

Secondary 3 Evaluation Questions and document collections: Review with BANQ Short Answer Questions - Origins to 1840 Go to site Review Slides (Synthesis for Origins to 1840) Go to site Question developing of a coherent representation of a period C1 - Origins to 1608 Go to site

Question developing a coherent representation of a period C1 - 1840 to 1896 Go to site Question developing a coherent representation of a period C1 - 1896 to 1945 Go to site Question developing a coherent representation of a period C1 - 1945 to 1980 Go to site Question developing a coherent representation of a period C1 - 1980 to today Go to site Question demonstrating rigour of interpretation C2 - 1896 à 1945 Go to site Question demonstrating rigour of interpretation C2 - 1945 to 1980 Go to site Question demonstrating rigour of interpretation C2 - 1840 to 1896 Go to site Question demonstrating rigour of interpretation C2 - 1980 to today Go to site

MEES Program Documents

Below you will find various Ministry of Education program and evaluation documents for the Secondary Social Sciences domain. (Click "show list" when items are hidden.)

Quebec Secondary Programs in Social Sciences The QEP program documents describe course aims, competencies to develop, and course content.